SALEM, MA — The Satanic Temple (TST) has released a comprehensive directory that summarizes every state’s abortion restrictions regarding the informed consent process for pregnancy termination procedures. Whereas other resources provide overviews of these regulations in grids or brief lists that omit subtle relevant details, only TST’s directory contains an exhaustive explanation of mandatory disclosures that illuminates the intricacies of state abortion laws.

TST’s directory describes the entire process for giving informed consent. The resource guide was assembled by reviewing forms, state-prepared reading materials, and legislation regarding abortions for each state. States often require that informed consent materials include arbitrary, pseudoscientific, and outright fictional clauses that do not comport with established scientific facts. In these instances, TST debunks each claim. The document  contains all of the mandated informed consent statues for each state. This includes the language that doctors may be required to use, medical disclosures about the pregnancy termination, stipulations for the performance of ultrasounds and other prerequisite procedures, and the required information that is included in state-prepared reading materials.

TST compiled this information to compliment its religious abortion ritual. Satanists who perform TST’s religious abortion ritual are permitted exemptions from informed consent statutes that violate TST’s religious beliefs of bodily autonomy and scientifically-reasoned personal choice. Ashlee Wright from TST’s Religious Reproductive Rights Campaign explains, “Abortion regulations that violate our religious convictions are presented to patients in ways that other research institutions often do not address. Required disclosures, such as asserting adoption is an alternative to abortion or that life begins at conception, violate the sincere practice of our religious ritual and contravene our deeply-held beliefs. Many existing databases do not track this information in any cohesive way.”

As opposed to providing abortion statutes in the form of a list, table, or graphic organizer as many current sites do, all information is outlined in paragraph form for each state with an introduction to describe what the informed consent process should look like. Wright notes that “each state’s permutation of informed consent statutes is so unique that a Satanist cannot adequately obtain a complete picture from other publications of the disclosures and procedures to which they can religiously object. Available research does not remotely cover informed consent statutes in the depth required to protect the religious rights of our members. It was out of this necessity that we conducted our own thorough research.”

Wright continues, “Every rational individual should find it appalling that states, in every effort to dissuade a patient from undergoing an abortion, would promote false information. We are providing a service by exposing these demeaning prerequisite procedures that many states insist on pedaling as medically necessary. While those wishing to partake in our ritual will certainly find our research helpful, we invite everyone to read our guide and discover the insultingly nonsensical statutes that states are willing to pass that reflect the prejudices of their legislators.”